Climate change
Environment: China’s pollution overload
People in China’s cities are choking on smog. This past winter the capital Beijing, and other northern cities, suffered their worst air pollution readings on record.
Doha climate talks dead-end
The latest UN-sponsored climate talks in Doha in December ended in total failure – just as previous summits have. Friends of the Earth called the talks a "disaster zone" and Greenpeace asked of the negotiators: "What planet are you on?" As usual, the capitalist politicians taking part tried to talk up the outcome. Ed Davey, Lib Dem climate change minister, claimed that "it is genuine progress... It is a bigger step forward than people have given us credit for".
US: Capitalism to blame for “Frankenstorm” disaster
The gigantic “Frankenstorm” Hurricane Sandy has put thousands out of their homes, millions out of power, and claimed 59 lives across the Northeast. Preliminary estimates of the damage reach up to $50 billion, which would make Sandy the most expensive storm in US history.
Global warming: Capitalists skating on thin ice
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre is expected to announce a new low in the extent of the arctic sea ice. The shrinking of the arctic polar ice sheet has shocked climate scientists around the world and is now only half the area of summer ice in the 1970s.
Global warming: Socialist plan for the environment is needed
Global warming is the overriding environmental issue facing the world. 20 years have passed since the United Nations’ (UN) ’Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro highlighted the problem. However, the output of greenhouse gases that cause climate change has continued to escalate to a critical level that threatens environmental catastrophe. As emissions have rocketed, the gap between the green rhetoric of governments in the industrialised capitalist countries and their feeble policy response has become a chasm.
World warming even faster than thought
2010 is now thought to be the warmest year on record. Previously, the accelerated warming of the arctic was insufficiently taken into account by one of the main global temperature records. Now, new data paints a dramatic picture of our warming planet: due to a sharp rise in carbon dioxide output from industrial activity over the last two decades, the world is warming faster than we thought.
Socialist planning needed to avert a global catastrophe
Climate Change is already destroying lives. 21,000 people died as a direct result of extreme weather conditions in the first nine months of this year, a new Oxfam report says.
Copenhagen climate crisis environment second to profit once again
With Obama’s acceptance that agreeing a legally binding framework on climate change and reductions in emissions will not be possible at the talks in Copenhagen, commentators and participants are now trying to portray this in a positive light.
